Phil
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« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2008, 11:37:46 » |
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My experience of this is, no matter how much signage you erect, no matter how many network diagrams, interactive maps, simple to use station finders, clear and accurate direction boards and self-help systems you install, the first thing some many a depressing majority of people will do on arrival at any railway station is to ask.
They'll ask the station cleaner, they'll ask other passengers, they'll ask the foreign student working in the Costa Coffee outlet; they'll ask a blooming pigeon first, rather than try to figure it out for themselves. And if they can get onto the platform (at barrierless stations) they'll ask the guy with the table tennis bat waving to the driver just as he pulls out, always choosing the most inopportune moment to do so. As a very last resort they'll queue for a ticket and ask there.
I'm sorry, but the only sensible way round this is to employ more staff at stations. They can even be "civilians", leaving train despatch personnel to get on with their professional job, but things are never going to change until there's actually someone around that people can ask. And sadly, I doubt it's ever goiing to happen. Porters belong to a bygone age.
At Chippenham, there's a notice at the main entrance instructing disabled passengers who require assistance crossing the line [all trains there depart from the island platform, and the only way of accessing it is across a footbridge] to ask a member of the station staff. Where are both the station staff invariably to be found? On the island platform.
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